Last week, the Coronado Unified School District (CUSD) Board of Trustees convened for a special meeting. During this meeting, the Board discussed and approved preliminary plans for multiple district layoffs.
According to the district, one of the key reasons for these layoffs is loss of enrollment. It was noted that the district receives approximately $1.2 million for every 100 students enrolled. Under the current funding formula from the state –the Local Control Funding Formula– any loss of enrollment equates to a direct reduction in district funding.
“Our enrollment numbers, matching the statewide trends, have been decreasing for almost a decade,” CUSD Public Information Officer Maria Simon told me. “Our census day enrollment (the number used for state reporting in October) was 3,057 in 2018, then 2,799 in 2022, and now it’s at 2,717.”
According to Simon, several factors are causing the district’s declining enrollment, but at the top of the list is the changing demographic in Coronado. “Many homes that once had families with school-aged children are now second homes to people who live out of state… Our booming real estate market has resulted in a huge demographic change in the last decade,” Simon explained.
This downward trend in enrollment is not unique to Coronado, as these changes are occurring in districts across the state. “…Even before the pandemic, public school enrollment was dropping, but the pandemic definitely accelerated the shift, particularly with an increase in homeschooling,” Simon continued. “The data we receive from sources like Cal Matters and Ed Source show that charter school enrollment is also down and private schools only slightly up, around a 1% increase. Those trends point to people with school-aged children leaving the state of California, which is commonly attributed to factors such as job relocation, increasing housing and living costs, and the highest state income tax in the country.”
While the district does believe that the pandemic has contributed to declining enrollment, the trend began years prior. “Many students who left have come back, but not all. However, I believe we would have the same situation regardless of the pandemic,” Simon noted. “Coronado is changing. The state of California is changing.”
In the immediate future, the district will try to attract more interdistrict transfers into CUSD to supplement the current loss of students. “One of the best ways to do this is to have strong specialty programs that make people want to drive to Coronado every day,” said Simon. An interdistrict transfer is a student who enrolls at a school outside their local district or the designated school they are required to attend based on where they live. A student can be released from their assigned district and accepted into another district under certain circumstances, such as seeking out specialty programs not offered at their local district school.
“A great example of this is our Coronado School of the Arts, which attracts talented student artists from across the county. A strong academic program is also an excellent draw for students at all grade levels. There are a lot of people who live outside of Coronado but work here, including the Navy bases and big hotels. Their children are eligible to transfer to CUSD schools, and we are working to get the word out to these families.”
While declining enrollment is a pressing matter facing CUSD, Simon noted a light at the end of the tunnel in the form of Basic Aid. “…We will become a Basic Aid funded district approximately in 2027-28… This means that our funding will no longer come from the enrollment/attendance formula but directly from our local property taxes,” Simon explained. “When that happens, declining enrollment will no longer affect our budget. However, in order to have robust programs, athletic teams, clubs, etc., it will matter that we have enough students to fill those classes and maintain quality programs.”
As previously stated, the CUSD Board of Trustees recently voted to approve layoffs within the district, partially due to declining enrollment. These layoffs were preliminary notices, with additional notices coming this May to either move forward with the layoffs or recall the initial notices and keep the employees. This gives the district some time to attempt to find a solution outside of faculty layoffs, which Trustees voiced their hopes for at the meeting. “I don’t take this lightly…I really hope we can do everything we can to not have to go through with these layoffs,” said Trustee Antrim. Discussion surrounding more district-wide budget cuts and action plans will likely be brought forward during the coming months.
The next regular CUSD board meeting is scheduled for Thursday, March 14, at 4 p.m. in the District Office Board Room at 201 Sixth Street.
VOL. 114, NO. 11 – Mar. 13, 2024